I will admit, I’m probably more inclined to be attracted to the subject matter of this film because of my upbringing. I was born in 1962. My formative years were spent watching the rise of the civil rights movement from the den of segregation. I was raised in the deep south of rural north Louisiana. Our family didn’t have a maid but we knew people who did. I remember what it looked like and it looked like this film. Our schools in Ouachita Parish were integrated the year I entered first grade. My parents pulled me out of school and sent me to a private Christian school that was all white. A year later I returned to public school and I remember well the struggles of desegregation first hand.
The Help is the best movie I’ve seen in a long, long time. I am a movie fanatic. I see a lot of films and I like all kinds - Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy... I enjoy them all. But once and a while a different kind of film comes out. A film that can change who you are. A film that makes you want to be a better person. A film that makes you evaluate yourself and the world around you. The Help is that kind of film.
Based on the best selling book by the same name, The Help takes us back to the turbulent 1960’s in the racially-divided city of Jackson, Mississippi and let’s us view the world through the eyes of the black women who cleaned the homes, cooked the suppers and raised the children of prominent white families in southern communities.
The story centers mainly around the character of a young Mississippi white woman named Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, a journalist who plans to write a book from the perspective of the black maids she has grown up around. She attempts to enlist the help of Aibileen Clark, who works in the home of one of Skeeter’s close friends, but Aibileen initially declines. When she later agrees to tell her story, Skeeter asks her what changed her mind. Her response is “God.” Her Pastor’s sermon has reminded her that courage requires us to sometimes do things we’re not comfortable doing. Courage becomes the theme of the movie, as Skeeter’s mother, who is initially critical of her daughter’s view of the world, eventually expresses pride in her by telling her, “Courage sometimes skips a generation. I’m so glad you’ve brought it back to this family.”
The film brings laughs, the film brings tears, the film brings regrets and hopefully the film brings change. Because, as much progress as has been made in race relations since the 1960’s - We’ve still got so far to go! Those changes will require courage and our courage depends on a different kind of help - The help of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, we can bring lasting change and love one another as God has called us to! I can almost hear Him whispering now, “You is kind, You is smart, You is important.”
